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A Journey without Gadgets

Recently I had the most amazing and relaxing journey so far I remember in recent time. Around a week back on my family vacation I did the most memorable flight journey with my son. Why this journey was so special and worth talking about it? How this journey was different from my past trips? Why do I want to share this with everyone? I am sure these must be the questions in your mind while reading this, I will answer each one soon but before that I want to share something which I read in a book before starting my journey.

One day before my trip to Lucknow from Bangalore I was reading a book and was impressed with one line sentence “Savour Your Environment To Live Your Life Happily“. This one line made a big impact on me and made me think that how many times do we miss the present moment which we are living in worry of future or in regret of past. We actually miss to live in the present moment whether we are having breakfast/lunch or dinner, drinking coffee, talking to our partner, walking in the garden/road or travelling with our family. Try to observe that we do not live in current moment, our mind is always busy in thinking about future or must be in memory of past. So I decided to give my best to live in present moment and see if I notice any change, do I enjoy the current moment, do I feel good.

A Journey Without Gadgets. Next day family vacation started from Bangalore. I did my packing previous night which include all my gadgets; camera, phone, Ipod, Kindle, macbook, ear phone, selfie stick and other essential items required in the trip. Our first flight was from Bangalore to Lucknow and I decided to use this time with my family and specially with my son (Adi), this was Adi’s first flight when he can actually enjoy it, his all previous flights were mostly in his mamma’s lap or in stroller. Adi’s curiosity is increasing day by day as he is growing. I wanted to live this moment with him.

I saw my son’s reactions on almost every thing whether its Uber ride till airport, putting luggage on airport trolly, getting into the gates, passing a smile to police person, getting his boarding pass and so on. The moment I got into the Uber cab from home, I stopped checking my phone and during whole trip first time I did not use any gadget. Generally I browse songs on Ipod to listen my favourite playlist, clean up my phone by deleting old messages, docs, notes. I also browse offline videos or read books on my Kindle. But this time I just savour it every bit with my family. I savoured everything around me; Adi’s naughtiness, my coffee at airport, my fellow co-passengers and much more. I saw one lady must be in her sixties looking out her window in airplane, she was smiling alone quite often. Sometime she used to stare outside window for a long time and in between she used to smile; may be she was also savouring the present moment and her time alone, remembering good old days or may be she is excited to meet her loved ones at the end of this flight. Even without knowing her or talking to her I was happy to see her smiling. Someone has truly said that “happiness is hidden behind small things around you”.

My son Adi did not sleep for a single moment during whole journey and so did I. He was curious to know every thing around him; tray table, seat cover, seat handle, push button, seat belt, window shutter, light above his head, aircraft sound, crew announcement, pilot announcement, food served and so many other things. He asked so many questions and I just savoured that moment. I was smiling on his curiosity and his reaction on every answer.

I must say that this was the most amazing flight journey I had so far. I generally hate boring flight journeys; sitting at one one place, hearing same kind announcements, seeing same hand gestures of crew members. I used to plug my ear phones the moment I used to enter in flight, but this time it was different, I did not realize that I was sitting at same place and almost same sitting posture for last 2.5 hours. And when I landed in Lucknow (capital of Uttar Pradesh, a state in India), I was very relaxed, my mind was like I took a long deep sleep though I did not sleep a bit. Whole journey my mind was busy doing something at that moment. I asked my self why I am feeling so relaxed, light and fresh; because I lived in present moment, no thought about past, no worry about future, no phone, no music, no Kindle, no any other gadget. I lived in that moment with my son and family. I savoured the time, the meal, the journey and the place.

Art of savouring; give time yourself to savour the environment around you. When you are drinking a coffee; don’t just drink it while checking your emails; instead savour the coffee and its flavour. Savour the environment around you while drinking coffee, see the people around you. Savouring helps in relaxing your mind, it helps in keeping you in present moment, living the current moment and focusing on present thing. Its one kind of meditation where you focus on only one thing at a time, just one thing which you are doing in current moment.